https://arpithamurthy.github.io/ Practical system-design notes and reflections by Arpitha Murthy. en https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/building-a-simple-web-app-without-overengineering-it/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/building-a-simple-web-app-without-overengineering-it/A simple web app should make a small promise and keep it well. Static sites, documentation, portfolios, event pages, small forms, and informational tools may not need much infrastructure, but they still deserve deliberate decisions about users, content, accessibility, security, performance, and owneTechnical notes https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-ai-products-and-agent-platforms/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-ai-products-and-agent-platforms/AI products combine models that can give different answers with software that follows fixed rules. They may also use private information, external tools, and human decisions. A convincing response is not enough. I want to know whether the product is useful, safe, affordable, and still under the userTechnical notes https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-banking-and-fintech-systems/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-banking-and-fintech-systems/Banking and fintech products move value under strict expectations of correctness, security, privacy, and auditability . A transfer that appears fast but cannot be explained or reconciled is not a successful transfer. These are the questions I would ask before choosing the architecture.Technical notes https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-communication-and-collaboration-systems/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-communication-and-collaboration-systems/Messaging, email, meetings, and collaborative documents connect people across devices, networks, organizations, and time. Users expect messages not to disappear, private conversations not to leak, and shared work not to be overwritten.Technical notes https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-a-complex-web-app-for-security-quality-and-scale/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-a-complex-web-app-for-security-quality-and-scale/Complex web apps such as commerce platforms, social networks, and streaming products combine valuable data, many user journeys, distributed systems, and continuous change. These are the questions engineers need to make explicit before architecture becomes difficult to reverse.Technical notes https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-developer-platforms/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-developer-platforms/Developer platforms provide cloud resources, APIs, CI/CD , observability, environments, and operational workflows to other engineers. Their job is not to hide every detail. It is to make the secure and reliable path easier while preserving enough visibility for teams to understand and recover their Technical notes https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-digital-government-services/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-digital-government-services/Government services connect identity, rights, obligations, public money, and decisions people may be unable to avoid. Tax, benefits, licensing, permits, records, and civic participation need reliability and security, but also clarity, accessibility, due process, and alternatives for people who cannoTechnical notes https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-education-and-learning-systems/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-education-and-learning-systems/Learning platforms connect students, educators, families, institutions, content, assessment, and credentials. Their success is not time spent in the app. It is whether people can learn, demonstrate understanding, receive useful support, and carry trustworthy progress forward.Technical notes https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-enterprise-saas-products/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-enterprise-saas-products/Enterprise SaaS products support work that crosses teams, permissions, integrations, and records kept for many years. A CRM, HR system, accounting tool, or project platform succeeds when it can adapt to an organization without becoming impossible to understand or upgrade.Technical notes https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-healthcare-systems/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-healthcare-systems/Healthcare software supports decisions whose consequences can extend beyond the screen. Patient portals, telemedicine, pharmacy, scheduling, and clinical systems must preserve safety, privacy, context, and continuity while fitting real clinical work.Technical notes https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-iot-and-industrial-systems/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-iot-and-industrial-systems/IoT and industrial products connect software to devices, sensors, buildings, vehicles, and machinery. A bug can waste energy, stop production, damage equipment, or affect physical safety, so cloud convenience must not replace local control and engineering discipline.Technical notes https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-logistics-and-delivery-systems/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-logistics-and-delivery-systems/Logistics systems coordinate orders, inventory, warehouses, vehicles, routes, carriers, and people across the physical world. Their data is always an imperfect representation of items that can be delayed, damaged, misplaced, or scanned out of order.Technical notes https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-observability-and-log-analytics-platforms/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-observability-and-log-analytics-platforms/My experience with monitoring network elements gives me a practical lens for understanding observability platforms. Collecting logs is only the beginning. The platform has to turn large, uneven streams of telemetry into evidence that helps someone notice a problem, understand its scope, and decide wTechnical notes https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-online-games-and-virtual-economies/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-online-games-and-virtual-economies/Online games combine live simulation, player identity, progression, matchmaking, social systems, live content, and sometimes economies with real value. The design must preserve fun and fairness while operating under hostile clients and unpredictable global demand.Technical notes https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-online-marketplaces/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-online-marketplaces/Marketplaces coordinate independent buyers and sellers while the platform manages discovery, trust, transactions, disputes, and incentives. The difficult part is not listing supply. It is creating rules that remain fair when participants have different information and goals.Technical notes https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-real-estate-and-property-systems/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-real-estate-and-property-systems/Real estate products connect listings, ownership, identity, money, documents, geography, and physical processes that may span years. Property search may look like ordinary discovery, but rentals, mortgages, transactions, and maintenance carry legal and financial consequences.Technical notes https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-ticketing-and-reservation-systems/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-ticketing-and-reservation-systems/Ticketing and reservation products sell access to something scarce: a seat, room, table, appointment, permit, or time slot. The central design problem is deciding who may hold or own inventory while many people compete for it.Technical notes https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-travel-and-mobility-systems/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-travel-and-mobility-systems/Ride booking, transit, flight, hotel, and vehicle rental products coordinate people and physical resources while location, price, and availability keep changing. Their difficult work is not drawing a route on a map. It is making a dependable promise from incomplete live information.Technical notes https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-workplace-analytics-and-insights-platforms/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/exploring-workplace-analytics-and-insights-platforms/Workplace analytics platforms can help people and organizations understand patterns in meetings, focus time, collaboration, and wellbeing. The same data can also feel intrusive or become harmful if an insight is treated as a judgement about an individual.Technical notes https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/fairness-advantage-and-who-gets-to-be-worthy/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/fairness-advantage-and-who-gets-to-be-worthy/We often say that fairness means treating everyone equally. But are people really equal when they begin life with different levels of wealth, support, safety, education, and influence? I keep wondering whether we care about injustice only when it harms us, and how easily we accept it when it works iReflections https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/principles-i-am-learning-to-return-to/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/principles-i-am-learning-to-return-to/These are not rules I have mastered. They are ideas I have gathered from mentors, colleagues, mistakes, and experience. I want to remember them when the right choice is not obvious.Reflections https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/system-design-concepts-i-revisit/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/system-design-concepts-i-revisit/System design can feel like a long list of terms. I want this note to connect the ideas so I can return to them. The question behind every concept is simple: what problem does it help me reason about, and what tradeoff does it introduce?Technical notes https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/wellbeing/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/wellbeing/Wellbeing, for me, is not one big achievement. It comes from a few simple things I want to return to regularly, both for my body and my mind.Reflections https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/when-i-stopped-judging-others/https://arpithamurthy.github.io/articles/when-i-stopped-judging-others/I used to think that judging others was mostly about them. I did not realize how much it was shaping the way I saw myself. When I stopped measuring other people's choices and success, I became less harsh with myself. I may have benefited more than anyone else from learning not to judge.Reflections